可视化https://maxon.net/zh_CN.utf8MAXONSat, 25 May 2019 10:14:21 +0000Sat, 25 May 2019 10:14:21 +0000TYPO3 EXT:newsnews-6411Mon, 10 Jul 2017 09:17:00 +0000VR Worlds for Renaulthttps://maxon.net/cn/%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB/case-studies/%E5%8F%AF%E8%A7%86%E5%8C%96/article/vr-worlds-for-renault/VR worlds are also primarily made up of images that first have to be created and rendered: something that can be done perfectly using Cinema 4D. And if the deadline’s a little tight you can always count on Google Zync to help you get your rendering done on time.Virtual Reality has been a hot topic over the past few years and artists who create content for 360° presentation are often moving through uncharted territory: the challenges that have to be met range from defining the proper angle of view to technical solutions and scaling for different end devices. This is why it’s important to have a tool you can count on – like Cinema 4D!

Scorch Films, one of the top names for clients who expect perfection in the technical realization of their designs, is located in the heart of London’s Soho district. Scorch’s portfolio includes work for brands such as Pepsi, BBC, Rimmel, Hilton, Unilever, Hyundai, Subway and many more – an illustrious client base that now also includes the French automaker Renault.

What Renault wanted Scorch to do was find a new way of presenting their model lines Megane, Zoe and Clio to the general public and let it find out more about these products. Scorch developed a very unique concept for the campaign: “We created three unique VR environments to communicate the personality of each vehicle,” explains Ramsay. “In these films, participants can look through the windows of each car and at the surrounding scenery – every few seconds the features of the landscape move and shift, delivering a new perspective for the viewer to take in.”

Scorch used Cinema 4D to realize their concept and to create the models, lighting and textures. Early on in the project it became clear that a scalable expansion of the existing render resources would be required to render the project.

“The creation of VR content is a complex process, not to mention the complex and comprehensive renderings that need to be created,” remembers Ramsay. “Even the first tests showed that we would need a Cloud rendering solution in addition to your own resources to make sure that we finished on time.”

The solution they chose was Google’s Zync Render, which is integrated into the studio’s and Cinema 4D’s pipeline. This solution made it possible to master the massive render jobs efficiently and on time.

The actual challenge was the amount of data that was generated and not the creation of the three environment scenes, even if they themselves were not easy to create.

“In order to create a 360° view we used six cameras in each scene,” explains Ramsay, “each of which rendered 1024*1024 that were subsequently combined into a 360° 4K video. This was a lot of image material that had to be rendered!”

Zync Render was easy to integrate into the pipeline: “We used Cinema 4D’s Physical Renderer and took a lot of time for fine-tuning the lighting and the final renderings,” remembers Ramsay.

“When you’re working with such a tight deadline you often have to make compromises with regard to render times and the required render quality,” Ramsay continues. “With Zync Render in the production pipeline we didn’t have to make any compromises and were able to set up the scene exactly as we wanted. The files were uploaded to the Cloud for rendering and the finished results were sent back to our network, ready for final compositing in After Effects. With this solution we were able to stay on budget because we didn’t need any additional hardware or a render farm.”

“We also used the time advantage we gained by using the Cloud to add artistic variations and to fine-tune each scene until we had exactly the look we wanted!”

“With Cinema 4D and Zync, Scorch was able to deliver each video for Renault’s VR presentation in the desired quality and with consistent 4K resolution,” says Ramsay. “You need a lot of render power for 4K in VR. With technology advancing at a rapid pace we also need to be prepared for VR resolutions of 8K, 16K and even 32K in the future.”

“There are also even more technological advances on the horizon: for example, if you want to create VR presentations in 3D, render times will double! A separate film has to be rendered for each eye to achieve the required depth of field. Thanks to the Cinema 4D pipeline and easily scalable ender power of Google’s Zync Cloud render service, Scorch is more than ready to meet these challenges.”

“Cloud rendering makes it possible for us to grab the render power we need when we need it,” concludes Ramsay. “With Zync we were able to get the most render power out of 50 computers – or more if we had needed them. We’ll definitely use this service in the future whenever required. Setting up such a render farm in our own studio would not be feasible and with tools such as Cinema 4D and Zync we’re always ready for any render job as well as the increasingly complex projects that come our way.”

]]>news-4064Thu, 17 Jul 2014 08:36:00 +0000Impressive 3D Caveworldshttps://maxon.net/cn/%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB/case-studies/%E5%8F%AF%E8%A7%86%E5%8C%96/article/impressive-3d-caveworlds/National Geographic is known for its high standards when it comes to photo reporting. And where real-world photography reaches its limits, Cinema 4D is there to help get the job done.The National Geographic Society was founded with the aim of exploring the globe and is best known for its periodicals, which have been published continuously since 1888. The National Geographic Magazine has long since established itself as the epitome of photographic reporting for all topics related to geography. Often, complex topics cannot be illustrated well enough simply using photography, which means that informational graphics have to be added whose quality is held to the same high standards as the original photographs. A very unique case was the report about the Gebihe caves in China. One of the cave’s chambers, the Miao chamber, was scanned with a laser and Cinema 4D was used to create spectacular informational graphics for the magazine and the National Geographic website.The Miao chamber is approximately 852 meters long and reaches heights of 190 meters, which makes it the second largest known chamber worldwide. This enormous natural phenomenon was scanned using a laser and about 15 million measuring points were generated, which were used to create a virtual cluster of points that basically reproduces the Miao chamber virtually. Using this data and the photos shot by National Geographic photographer Carsten Peter, the Berlin, Germany-based studio for professional visualization and informational graphics, ixtract, was given the job of visualizing the chamber for the National Geographic Magazine.

The first challenge that this project presented was to create a precise model of the chamber’s spatial composition using the data supplied. When asked about the challenges faced by the ixtract team during this project, Stefan Fichtel said: “We first had to deal with the gaps in the data caused by projecting rock formations, boulders and other obstacles, which prevented the chamber from being measured in its entirety. We used Cinema 4D’s XPresso feature to create a customized Displacement object, which was placed around the object like a flexible, opaque outer skin. This object was then adapted to fit the geometry, which helped solve lighting issues later in the project.”

The team also had to color the cave walls. Using textures was not an option because the size required for the desired resolution would have made them too large. “This is why we simulated all textures using Cinema 4D’s own shaders. Modifying the shaders to make them look like real cave walls required a lot of creativity! More than 100 layers in different channels were mixed while making sure that the antialiasing was flicker-free, which was a challenge in and of itself,” recalls Stefan.

The project initially called for a printed informational graphic only but as it turned out, a complex animation ended up being created for the National Geographic website. This animation was designed to be a type of virtual walkthrough of the Miao chamber. At certain points, the walkthrough were to consist of photos made by Carsten Peters. “This animation had two sections in particular that posed problems”, remembers Stefan. “First, the points from which the photos had been taken had to be located. The expedition members weren’t able to tell us where these were because it was simply too dark. The second issue that we had was that we were working within a very tight deadline and we had only 2 weeks to render about 2,400 images for 90 seconds of animation!”

The Motion Camera was used to create the animated camera so that the locations of the photos were combined seamlessly with the camera’s movement. Then things suddenly got interesting during rendering: In the middle of the project it was announced that the interactive version, which had a resolution for use on iPads, had to be rendered in full HD after all – and the team had no way of knowing if the rendering could be completed on time.

Stefan Fichtel about the situation: “Unfortunately we had to do without features such as Global Illumination, etc. and had to find additional ways of keeping render times as low as possible. Render time for only one version of the 90-second animation (2,400 images) was 4.5 days (60 GHz, 50 i7 cores with 140 GB RAM). In order to meet the deadline, render times had to be reduced to 12 -15 minutes per frame, without compromising on realism, which we were fortunately able to do.”The results achieved by the team at ixtract are outstanding and a proud Stefan Fichtel states: “National Geographic works with only two external studios worldwide – and we’re one of them!”Learn from the prosixtract has established itself as an studio and Stefan Fichtel has built a reputation as a Cinema 4D specialist whose abilities are reflected in the work he produces. Stefan also works as a consultant and trainer, e.g., for companies who want to integrate Cinema 4D into their existing production pipelines. Stefan offers his services either on-site or at his own facilities. The clients decide what they want to learn and Stefan will also create a customized course on an individualized or group basis. Courses are offered for beginners as well as advanced users, and specialized topics such as XPresso are also covered.